Introduction

Culture is something which is important to be understood by managers as well as employees in order to do a business in international market. In order to lead life and to conduct business, it is very important for an individual to understand about culture which involves various ways to create integrity. There is no presence of universal answers but there are some universal dilemmas and there is a need of solving those dilemmas regarding culture (Mach and Baruch, 2015).

Many researchers have been inspired for examining the cross cultural management and are making efforts for findings ways of getting success and ways through which an individual can act competently and effectively in cross cultural environment.

Cross-cultural management is an innovative field of research and its significance is increasing due to increased globalization. Mostly global managers show more interest in understanding cross-cultural management because they have to work in international corporations that are operated in various countries. The differences among cultures can be evident through doing comparisons among different cultures (Eisenberg et al, 2013).

2. Comparison of Articles

Triandis (2001) did a research on cross-cultural management and organizations. The researcher analyzed some key ways through which cultures are differed from one another. In his research, he used three different methodological approaches in order to conduct the study; anthropological, indigenous and cross cultural perspective examines phenomenon. An anthropological method is a descriptive method and is qualitative in nature and in this approach those practices are examined that are particular in a culture. In addition to this, in indigenous method analyzes the processes that are done in particular culture like processes of management and in case of cross cultural method, the processes of different cultures are examined. In this study, the researcher used combination of all these three methods. The first two methods are more qualitative in nature and quantitative method is used in third approach in which cultures of different countries have to be analyzed. In order to study the implicit kinds of cultures, the researcher used some implicit methods like using primes of different kinds for modifying responses. This study has found that it is very important to deal with differences in case of subjective culture. In order to enhance collaboration among people working in a group, it is very important to understand values, norms and beliefs of every other culture. The managers must understand the ways of effective utilization of information in order to enhance interaction.

In contrast to research findings of Triandis (2001), Cheng and Seeger (2012) conducted a study ‘Cultural Differences and Communication Issues in International Mergers and Acquisitions: A Case Study of BenQ Debacle’.  In this research, a case study approach has been used in which BenQ, a company based in Taiwan has been analyzed. This company acquired Siemens of Germany. The study used qualitative case study as method of data collection. The analysis was mainly done on cultural and communication problems due to which the acquisition was proved to be unsuccessful. It has been indicated by findings of research that there is difference between German Siemans and Taiwanese BenQ on the basis of national culture as well as national culture. It has been found from this research that there is a need of considering the culture of host country at the time of acquisition and objectives and expectations must be defined during merger and process of implementation.

Both the above mentioned articles were written on understanding the concept of cross-cultural management in organizations. In first article that was written in 2001, the research was done on the basis of qualitative and implicit methods. The researcher did not analyze any company like any merger or acquisition done among companies but in second article, the researcher used a case study approach and analyzed the issues that have been faced by a company during acquisition. The second research was done in 2012, so with the passage of time, it has been found that companies have to understand the importance of cross-cultural differences in order to avoid issues.

3. Key cross-cultural issues

Intercultural management has been defined by Pudelko, Tenzer and Harzing (2014) as a process that has a purpose of ensuring appropriate functioning of diverse groups of individuals. The difference in identity and nationality is a main cause of diversity. In cross-cultural management, the managers from various countries have to work cohesively in teams.  

The surplus of traditional market causes organizations for establishing themselves in emerging markets, mainly across the borders. This means that companies have to enter in markets around the globe in order to compete and gains success. Due to international business, the transnational organizations are getting economical advantages and this behaviour is also beneficial for home countries like creating job opportunities, enhancement of skills and capabilities and transferring knowledge and management practices. This is the basic area of linkage between home country and host country’s culture and this is the point where there is a significant role of cross-cultural management. The extent to which international organizations get success in incorporating their practices of management depends on similarity between two cultures and it is mainly required in case of accepting decisions of authority and communication (Jyoti and Kour, 2015).  

There are some specific dimensions are included in cross-cultural management like management of team, leadership, recruitment and selection, structure of organization, human resource management and knowledge management. A prospective expatriate coming to work in a new host country has to face different cross-cultural management issues while starting an assignment or organizational project. Following are five key cross-cultural managerial issues that have to be considered deeply;

Managing the Relationship

There is key significance of managing the relationship among other individuals working already in host country. The managers have to use common systems for managing the relationships. These systems involve coordination and processes of controlling, like reporting and monitoring progress of project. In addition to this, the person must use common processes in order to achieve harmonization like methodologies of systems development and compatible technologies like computers, telecommunication systems and software. In case of cross-cultural management, there is a need of understanding the differences between norms and standards of individuals working in a team in order to create harmony. There is a possibility that conflict arises among individual having different cultural backgrounds and working experiences. Like, there might be a difference with respect to attitude towards hierarchy and power distance (Ferdman and Sagiv, 2012).   

For example, in case of outsourcing relationship by British managers with supplier of India, in acquiescence to authority, will not criticize during face to face meetings but will give their ideas and beliefs in messages after the end of meeting. The interaction and advancement of ideas are intense due to meetings. In order to build strong relationship with employees of cross-cultural backgrounds, there is a need of focusing on distinct attitudes of all. Like, German and Japanese usually have distinct attitudes toward working late hours. However, it has also been noticed that when German and Japanese companies do joint ventures then some German managers start staying later in organization and in contrary to this Japanese managers and employees tend to leave organization after working lesser hours (Caligiuri and Tarique, 2012).

Staffing Issues

Although, it is possible to move towards other cultures, but it is not appropriate to expect that an expatriate will act and think like the nationals already living in that country. This can result in creating some serious issues in areas in which there is a need of making detailed client contract. While hiring individuals from host country, it is very crucial to understand basic requirements of those locals. The managers must be hired in such a way that they can oversee the difficult projects like outsourcing. Like, individuals mainly from India, but have higher education of North America and is also resident in North America from many years, must be hired in India as expatriate manager to outsource projects (Saunders, 2012).

In most of the Western countries, like UK, salary is considered to be the most significant incentive for individuals. In contrary to this, Japanese individuals are more concerned with status of job rather than salary. This issue can be faced by individual who want to work in an international firm. An expatriate coming to work in a host country must have technical abilities and he or she must be adaptable to different kinds of environments and livings (Cullen and Parboteeah, 2013).

Communication

Communication is one of the most important issue that need to be considered by expatriate while working in a foreign country. Among cross-cultural management, it is very important to bridge the gap between communication differences among individuals of different countries. Different researchers suggested different points regarding cross-cultural communications (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012).

Hall’s View

According to viewpoint of Hall, a culture with high context is one in which individuals are highly interacted and linked with each other. Due to intimate linkage among individuals, social hierarchy is existed in workplace, in which inner feelings of individual have to be self-controlled and sharing of information is done through messages. For example, in Arab and Asian countries, the communication styles are highly contextualized. In contrary to this, there are low context cultures in communication styles of Europe and America. A low context culture is that kind of culture in which there is high level of individualism among people and they like to live alienated and there is low level of involvement with others (Hall, 1998). As a result of this, there is less imposition of social hierarchy on people and there is a way of expression used in communication.

Hofstede cross cultural approach

There is high importance of work of Hofstede (2001) regarding cross-cultural business communication. According to Hofstede (1980) culture is defined as collective working of mind, which differentiates individuals from one another. According to him, culture is collective sharing of values and beliefs. In a culture, same kinds of thinking and perception are shared by people. So, in case of cross-cultural teams and working, there might be different reactions and feelings of people.  There are four categories of societal culture identified by Hofstede (1980): power distance, individualism or collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity or femininity.

In case of working in foreign country, a person has to understand all aspects of culture. One dimension is power distance that depicts the way through which society deals with a fact that individual are unequal on the basis of physical and psychological skills and capabilities. Particularly, power distance depicts that there is more upward communication in company. In case of cross-cultural teams, there is also need of understanding that whether there is individualism or collectivism. So, in order to work in a foreign country, it is very important to understand the communication styles of that country.

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

It can be concluded from the whole analysis that cross-cultural management is an emerging field and a number of researches have been done on this area. The researchers are trying to find out ways through which cross-cultural teams can be managed. In order to work with people having different cultural backgrounds, there is a need of understanding their beliefs, ideas and styles. The communication level among people of different cultures must be improved and person who has to work in foreign country must learn other country’s style of communication in order to work effectively. The researchers should study more ways and approaches through which managers can learn to manage cross-cultural teams in an effective way. More qualitative based studies need to be conducted in which different cross-cultural companies must be analysed.

References

Caligiuri, P. and Tarique, I., 2012. Dynamic cross-cultural competencies and global leadership effectiveness. Journal of World Business, 47(4), pp.612-622.

Cullen, J. and Parboteeah, K.P., 2013. Multinational management. UK: Cengage Learning

Eisenberg, J., Lee, H.J., Brück, F., Brenner, B., Claes, M.T., Mironski, J. and Bell, R., 2013. Can business schools make students culturally competent? Effects of cross-cultural management courses on cultural intelligence. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(4), pp.603-621.

Ferdman, B.M. and Sagiv, L., 2012. Diversity in Organizations and Cross?Cultural Work Psychology: What If They Were More Connected?. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 5(3), pp.323-345.

Hall, S., 1998. 42? Notes on Deconstructing 'the Popular'. Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader, 1(2), p.442.

Hofstede, G., 1980. Motivation, leadership, and organization: do American theories apply abroad?. Organizational dynamics, 9(1), pp.42-63.

Hofstede, G., 1998. Identifying organizational subcultures: An empirical approach. Journal of Management Studies, 35(1), pp.1-12.

Hofstede, G.H. and Hofstede, G., 2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. Sage.

Jyoti, J. and Kour, S., 2015. Assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation: Mediating role of cultural adjustment. Cross Cultural Management, 22(2), pp.236-258.

Mach, M. and Baruch, Y., 2015. Team performance in cross cultural project teams: The moderated mediation role of consensus, heterogeneity, faultlines and trust. Cross Cultural Management, 22(3), pp.464-486.

Pudelko, M., Tenzer, H. and Harzing, A.W., 2014. Cross-cultural management and language studies within international business research: Past and present paradigms and suggestions for future research. Routledge companion to crosscultural management. London: Routledge.

Saunders, M.N., 2012. Organizational trust: A cultural perspective.Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 26(2), pp. 100-150

Ting-Toomey, S. and Chung, L.C., 2012. Understanding intercultural communication. New York: Oxford University Press.

Triandis, H.C., 2001. The study of cross cultural management and organization: The future. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management,1(1), pp.17-20.